Marshwood girls blow past Deering

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine — It’s never sound strategy to give up the first goal, but the Marshwood High School girls lacrosse team made it work Wednesday.

Responding to the early wakeup call, the Hawks made sure it was the only time they had to fish the ball out of their own net.

They scored 12 unanswered goals in a 12-1 win over Deering that concluded their regular season.

“In a way I was kind of happy they scored the first goal,” said Marshwood coach Bernie Marvin, “because I can’t fire the kids up as much as losing does. They got pumped and came right at them.”

Marshwood (9-3) enters the Western Maine Class A tournament as the No. 3 seed and will host a playoff game Tuesday, most likely against South Portland.

“It was a slow start for us,” senior co-captain Abby Hyson said of Wednesday’s contest. “But once they scored that first goal it gave us motivation to step up and play our game.”

Their game so far has been pretty good. The Hawks are solid from the goal out and go into the postseason on a six-game win streak.

They’ve outscored the opposition 74-25 during that stretch and have allowed double figures in goals only twice all season.

They’ve outscored their last two opponents 23-2.

“I like where we’re at,” Marvin said, “and the kids are excited to do something.”

The Hawks’ confidence level is high.

“We can’t take any game lightly,” cautioned Hyson, who will play collegiately at Southern New Hampshire University

Marshwood’s three losses were by a combined total of five goals, including a pair of one-goal defeats.

The Hawks bounced back from Wednesday’s slow start, in which the visiting Rams (3-9) took a 1-0 lead in the first minute, by dictating the tempo.

They scored the next four goals in a little more than 11 minutes.

“I thought we were a little hesitant, almost to the point of (being) sloppy for a few minutes,” Marvin said. “The kids just brought it on themselves to straighten it out and we started moving the ball and playing our game.”

Marshwood added three more in the final 1:43 of the first half to make it 7-1 and all but put the game away.

The last two goals were identical strikes with Alli Schoff feeding a wide-open Janay Wright to the right of the cage on a nifty play that began as a free-position attempt and had Deering goalie Lily Worthley (6 saves) expecting a shot.

“Those girls have all been playing for me for four years together and they know where they are,” Marvin said. “They’re incredibly unselfish. Their goal is to win. A lot of teams get dismantled by personal agenda. This is a team agenda.”

Jillian Gori had three goals and an assist and Lindsey Poirier added a hat trick. Schoff finished with a goal and five assists and Wright had contributed two goals and an assist.

Brittany Bossi, Hannah Folger and Korinne Bohunsky also scored with Bossi netting the go-ahead goal 6:23 into the game.

Wright set up the quick strike as the Hawks capitalized on a Deering turnover in its own.

The Hawks’ possession game resulted in assists on eight of their 12 goals. They were also effective on draw controls.

“It’s hard because you keep moving and eventually one of them will find themselves open,” said Deering coach Andrew Gordon. “You concentrate and you keep moving, but the longer they hold it, the more they pass and the harder it gets.”

At the other end Meghan Lewis made five saves, four in the first half, including three on free-position attempts.

The only shot to get by the senior goalie came from Maddy Mazjanis, who connected 51 seconds into the game with an assist going to Cole Spike.

Lewis denied Mazjanis twice on free-position attempts later in the first half.